Study finds mining-related pollution 350 miles downstream of Canadian coal mines
<p>From high upon the Haul Road, the Kootenai River winds through Lincoln County above Libby. A conservation group says the river is among the country’s most endangered as a result of the run-off of selenium from open-pit coal mines from British Columbia, Canada, that flow into Lake Koocanusa. </p>
Researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey have concluded that a large coal-mining operation in British Columbia is sending pollution more than 350 miles downstream into the Columbia River.
The study also found that selenium levels in the Upper Columbia watershed continue to rise in British Columbia, Montana and Idaho, despite Elk Valley Resources’ $1.4 billion investment in technology to remove selenium, a trace element that can hamper fish reproduction and lead to gill, facial and spinal deformities.
The study, published late in the Aug. 13 edition of Environmental Science and Technology Letters, plotted selenium over a 17-year period and found that increasing levels parallel the expansion of an open-pit coal mining operation in British Columbia’s Elk River Valley.
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